Welcome to WoW! I’d start playing without any mods to really get a feel for the game. You don’t realize how much you rely on a mod until you start installing them. The game is pretty straightforward and fun to figure out.
There’s lots of really cool mods out there. My favorite one lately has been LightHeaded and TomTom.
Check out the wow forums too for all sorts of information, but Thottbot and Wowwiki are great resources even for max level toons!
I’m on an RP server and probably half of all character names are things like “Superhunter,” “Magedood” and “Beerisfun.” I have never seen any sort of public chatter that was RP, and spam gold-selling messages fill the main channels. The RP server was not the tiniest bit of improvement over a regular server.
Hmmm. Is it one of the older ones? I’ve heard that as newer RP servers came on line the RPers would migrate away from the older ones leaving them in the state you describe. I mostly played on Steamweedle Cartel (one of the medium-aged RP servers) and it was never that bad.
I stopped playing six months ago, but I find it hard to believe that things went to hell that quickly.
Or maybe it’s *because * I left … I was one of the guys reporting name violations to the GMs … . 
Report them. RP rules won’t be followed if there’s no consequences, and it’s extremely unlikely there will be consequences unless they’re reported.
What I hate about RP servers is that they’re prime targets when the PVP munchkins’ servers are down. They pop a newbie toon in the RP servers and suddenly all the starting areas are a flaming chaos of 7334speek and RP-baiting.
Voice Chat
do yourself and everyone else a favor and get a microphone/headset combo. the stand alone mics universally suck arse and will pick up large amounts of ambient noise. head set mics can be fine tuned to a much greater degree and will be easier on everyone.
(using voice chat in gaming since 1998 and I have tried virtually every program on the market, trust me on this)
thats the only real hardware I would suggest, otherwise the above info is great and spot on…but where is the link to alla’s?
http://wow.allakhazam.com/
ah yeah, there ya go.
that and tthotbot are the 2 big pages you need for info.
do yourself another favor, when you have a question about a quest, READ THE FUCKING QUEST LOG (note not yelling at you but if you ask an obvious question this is the answer you will receive in general chat) aka RTFQL for short. then if you still dont know what the hell is going on you can check Alla’s or tthotbot for added help and or ask around. people are helpful for the most part but when you have heard the same newbie question a few dozen times it gets really old.
Thanks for the answers! I installed it and had a go. It was fun if a bit repetitive. How does one go about joining a guild? Is it invite only?
It is invite-only, but invites are a dime a dozen. If you go into one of the major cities, there is a Guild Recruiting chat channel that’s automatically joined. Keep an eye on that, or check the Guild Recruiting forums on Blizzard’s WOW website. The problem isn’t usually finding a guild to join, it’s finding a good guild to join. But, since you’re not permanently bound to the first guild you join, you have options.
I don’t usually find things repetitive until at least the teens…where did you start?
I would like to suggest a couple of websites that I find immensely better than either Allakhazam or Thottbot. I started on these like everyone else, but every since I found Wowhead.com, I never go back to the old ones anymore. Wowhead is better organized, more attractive, and tends to have more concentrated helpful advice than the large number of unhelpful ones you have to wade through to get to the good stuff on Allakhazam or Thottbot.
Also, there’s a new site called WowDB (wowdb.com) that is looking even more promising than wowhead. Graphically prettier, and includes a 3D modeler to let you see what various pieces of gear look like on your character.
I suggest you give these two a try in addition to Allakhazam and Thottbot–everyone’s preferences are different, and you might find one of them more to your liking.
jayjay I did the dwarf start to level 5 and the night elf start to level 4. The repetitive part is killing the same monsters over and over in more or less the same way but I guess that is just how it is.
I don’t know…I’ve never found those areas repetitive. Dwarf you kill some troggs, then some pigs, then some trolls, and off you go to the Big Boy Town. Elves, same more or less…pigs, cats, demons, spiders, grab some water, Big Boy Town.
Admittedly, your “repetitive” and my “repetitive” may be different. At this point, I can generally skim through the newb levels (1-10) in most areas in four or five hours.
Oh, and about “the same way”…you have a very limited repertoire of skills now. That will change. You eventually get several different ways to kill things, and at lvl 10 you start gaining talent points, which can be spent on other interesting class-related skills.
Wanna know the biggest bummer about WoW, so far? That I cannot actually use Polymorph or Firestorm powers on the people I work with.
Hell, I’d settle for a Silence effect…
Holy crap, would I love to put immolation traps all around my cubicle. It would be a fry-fest since almost everyone around here has been hit with a stun arrow long before they reach me.
“Biggirl, why are you hoarding Sharpies?”
“Hunter weapon!”
I dunno, having my annoying co-worker do the little shaking jig and turning green from stepping on a snake trap holds a not small appeal. 
Which all goes to show, by-tor, that there are many ways to kill your co-workers in WoW.
And they, you. My boss has a very effective drain soul spell that he uses at every staff meeting.
Of course, everytime we see mail drop around here, it’s shaman gear it seems like (my husband is a hunter). The insulting thing? One of them is enhancement and looking at my leather items! Actually, he was doing that as a warrior too. I keep telling him to roll a rogue and get it over with–he’d die just as much, and be wearing the same gear.
Actually one of my co-workers plays WOW and is in my guild=) I was her secret santa this year and got her a game card … she was thrilled=
If you want to roll an alliance on thunderhorn, get in touch with me, Sonnenschein. I have a good guild I belong to [we are theoretically a raiding guild but we have people who PVP and others who just like to hang out and chat and do occasional groups.] If nothing else, I can help you get geared up at the lower level by taking you through a couple of the baby dungeons=)
Thanks for the offer. What times do you generally play aruvqan?